Opening, mixing, blowing room, and like machinery used in cotton mills



- T. NUTTALL ET AL 0,675

OPENING, MIXIIIG BLOWING ROOM, AND LIKE June 16, 1931 MACHINERY USED IN COTTON MILLS 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 11, 1929 IN YENTORSf Julvle 1931- TI. NUTTALL ET AL 1,810,675

OPENING, MIXING, BLOWING ROOM, AND LIKE MACHINERY USED IN COTTON MILLS Filed June 11, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 I N E NT QR S: 773m Nd/ffl/Y Q O M MO A OKN'E-YS.

June 16, 1931..

6 Sheets-Sheet 3- T. NUTTALL ET AL OPENING, MIXING, BLOWING ROOM, AND LIKE MACHINERY USED IN COTTON MILLS Flled June 11 1929 a s n muu mw Ji am K EN. ,1. v if wwwf L sw June 16, 1931. T. NUTTALL ET AL OPENING, MIXING, BLOWING ROOM, AND LIKE MACHINERY USED IN COTTON MILLS 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 7 Filed June 11, 1929 b/ V E N T Q R S.

June 18, 1931. T. NUTTALL ET AL 1,310,675

v OPENING, MIXING, BLOWING ROOM, AND LIKE MACHINERY USED IN COTTON MILLS Filed June 11, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 lrvv E n TeRs: Tom Mafia AT'TORAETS June 16, 1931. 'r. NUTTALL ET AL OPENING, MIXING, BLOWING ROOM, AND LIKE MACHINERY USED IN COTTON MILLS Filed June 11, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 r s N nmw R n i m T m M 0 mm N -T v FM? Patented June 16, 1931 v U a, s

TOMi'NUTTALL, or Fnniiwoarrr, NEABBQL'roN, Ann sYDNeY ALFRED sHoRTER, or DIDSBURY,'I'(IANCHESTER, ENG-LAND, ASSIGNORS or ONE-THIRD To THE BRITISH COTTON INDUSTRY RESEARCH- Assoc BRITISH AssooIATIoN;

IATIo ,g or MAKC'HESTER, ENenAND, A

OPENING, MIXING, BLOWING RooM, ANnmKE MACHINERY USED IN oo'rtroN'ntims Application fi1ed T une; 11',.1 1929, Serial No. er owfa a in Great Britain July 3,1923;

This invention relates toimprovements in or connected with opening machinery, pneu- 1 matic mixing apparatus, blowing room and cleaning machinery and SHClIllkB, used in cotton IIllllS. It concerns theprov sion and use of high speed dust cages or additional dust cages in suchapparatus, said cages being appropriately located where the cotton passes in a thin openor attenuated condition, said cages being driven to ensure a high surface speed. The principle involved is to at tack the cotton passing through the indicated machlnes, or between grouped. machines, and where the fleece 1s thin .or attenuated, and there to provide means by which the dust, etc., can be readily extracted and permanently removed from the apparatus, the simplest meansbeinghigh speed dust! cages or their equivalent. f e

.Dust cages are well-known as collectorsof cotton in its passage through various types of machines the same acting to collect and de-- liver the fieeceor web. vThe surface speed of" .the known dust cages is slow and the amount collected considerable in thickness weight. According to the known schemes,

the very thickness of thecotton on the surface of the cage has militated against the extraction of dust etc, through the openworkperiphery. Now we-propose,appropriately to locate a dust cage orcages, where the pass ing fleece is in a very open condition in such machines,- whereby the dust etc. canbe eflecfl tively. acted on andremoye'dby the air suction, thefibre beingpassed onby clean air forward fromthe provided high speed dust ages. These high speed dust cages are provided with suitable devices for facilitating the: removal of the cotton adhering to the openwork periphery, such removal being either merely temporary for the purpose. of

releasing entangled dust and followed by a replacement or thecotton on thea'foresaid periphery, or being permanent and resulting in the'transferencc otthe cottonto twoormore portions connectedeith-er with the usual type of suction Jfan thus causing the cot ton to approach or adhereto' the'correspondingportion of the periphery ofthe cage, or connecting to theouts'ide atmosphere thus causing, with appropriate arrangement of. the outer casingof. thecageor cages, acurrent of air from the inside to theoutside of the [corresponding portion of the periphery of the cage, consequent removal of. the cotton. For example, we may provide a damper arranged diametrically or segmentally in thepcage (and adjustableangularl'y if desired) ther'e beingv suction on the one section ofthe cage to permanently remove dust and'dirt, while the remainingportion of the cage is, open to atmosphere whereby cotton resting-on such half of the cage is instantly displaced by the incoming clean air from at-- mosphe're and liberated ready to be carried forward-or acted upon.

The location of thesuction orblowing areas of the cage could be varied. r

We may providea multiple arrangemento'f 's-eparated'dampers With the high speed cage or cages, say two or more fixed or movable fdampers sothat there is alternate suction and cageor cages as such an arrangement would allow of a; certain d1$i3l1Tba1lC6 ofthe cottonif necessary before actual removal,:but we do not consider such to be necessary.

dinary 'slow'running dust cages 'stripper rollers, heaters, clos ng or separating-rollers;

jacent tothe high. speed cage orcages. e

In order to better disclosethe principle in-. vdvedin th p o i gv working 0 a blowing available over various areas' ofr-the" In any of the examples, we may provlde" j additional co-operating devices such as or-- fiappers," or'such like, working with orlad;

high speed dust cage or cages for the purpose of attacking'cotton during the time it is actually being transmitted from or through opening and like apparatus, and while in a very'thin or attenuated condition, we propose to describe several arrangements by way of examples and these arrangements are illustrated by the drawings. It is to be recognized that we utilize what are, in effect, high speed dust cages for the purpose'of serving in sequence as rotary filter screens and then as surfaces which the fibre (already acted on) leaves automatically. Through the rotary filter screen area, for the time being, goes the dust and dirt laden air which leaves the machine for good, while fresh or clean air conducts the fibre (which has been treated) onwards from the area. which for the time being has ceased to be a rotary filter screen and is a delivering up area. Thus a high speed dust cage becomes efiective to operate automatically as an efficient filtering screen and as a cotton liberating area for the object in view, that is, permanently getting rid of much dust and dirt so that treated cotton is carried onwards to subsequent ap-- paratus by clean air, the dirty air being cone stant-ly discharged.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a broken sectional elevation (on the line 11 Fig. '2) showing the application of an arrangement according to our invention to a porcupine opener of well'known construction, only so much of the apparatus being shown as will sufiice for a proper ex- Fig. 5 is a verticalcross section on the' centre line'55 of the high speed dust cage Fig. 4. i r

Fig.6 shows our improvements applied to a group of machines including a beater of the horizontal duplex type and a vertical opener with a discharge pipe of the type commonly known in the trade as a -D trunk.

Fig. 7 shows the improvements applied between a hopper feeder and a discharge pipe similar to that shown in Fig. 6.

show a porcupine opener a with its casing a ant its dirt bars of, and which porcupine "opener is fed in any'known fashion, the por cupine opener being the beginning or in ermediate part of any suitable group of interconnected machines. Below the. opener a we locate a revolvable high speed dust cage 7) which is a perforated sheet metal or wire cages.

work cylinder, akin to the known dust cages, its effective length being perforated or openwork.

This cylindrical cage 6 is carried on removable end structures or spiders 5 b with outer rings 5 having lateral bars 1) upon which the open-work cage 6 is carried, so that, the cage structure is a complete revolvablc entity. The end structures or spiders t 6 may be solid, or may have glass or other panels b Short upper and lower dampers Z), Z), are

tted top and bottom, of a width just exceeding the length of the lateral bars 6 these dampers b I), being carried on the supports for the main damper to be later xplained.

The end structure 6 has a sleeve-like extension 6 and end structure 5? has also a sleevelike extension 5 upon which is a pulley b by which to drive the complete high speed dust cage 6. The sleeve-like extensions 12 and b fit in long sleeved bored bosses of bridge pieces or radial stays 0 bolted to cylindrical extensions 1) secured to the frame sides, as Fig. 2 shows.

The sleeve-like ex ensions and Z) rotate about a fixed shaft (Z upon which are pinned the spider arms (Z which carry, as well as the short width upper dampers b and b the main radial damper (Z.

The main radial damper (Z roughly divides the interior of the high speed dust cage 6 into two equal sections, and, it can be set by angular adjustment through a reasonable number of degrees, and there may be small circumferential segments to the damper as shown.

The upper interior half a? of the high speed dust cage 6 communicates, by passages end-on right and left from the centre, with end 0011b partments e the external walls of which are the end structures or spiders marked 6 6 (see Figs. 2 and 3) and, as between the perforated structure of the high speed dust cage b and the end structures or spiders marked 6 b the lateral bars Z9 appertain, it is clear that dust and dirt drawn through what is the upper-half of the high speed cage Z) for the time being, can be sucked away along the dirty air ducts e, which are placed in communication with a fan or fans.

Similarly, it is seen that clean air from the atmosphere enters through the two apertures at f in the cylinder extensions b and passes to the lower interior f (or, that part of the 1 area of the high speed dust cage 6 below the 1 main damper cl) and is drawn through the Referring first to Figs. 1 to 3, we there interstices by the suction of a fan or fans so as to remove the fibre and couple-up or convey the fibre to the D-shaped pipe line commonly known as the D trunk which leads to the known slow running collecting or condensing The sheet metal walls cover the under portion of the open-work length of the high-speed dust cages I) over the d: 'ery area, these converging into the leading away the high speed dust cage.

tube g, theisheet metalwalls g fittingup'to the release areaof the high speed dust cage. b

and constituting a sort of trumpet mouth... It

is a oarent that clean airfromthe atmos phere transports the cotton and carriesit for- Wardto theordinary slow running dust cages or whatever arrangement receives the fibre. Therenia be ao alled a Cllvldlll or ClOSlIl l I t: p i a roller, marked it, running atthesame surrace speed as the high speed dust cage 12 and ap plied as shown just below the cover plate 2' which encloses the no er area or the hi 'h I l V 2) speed dust cage 6.

In Figs. 4 and 5, a modified arrangement 5 is shown in connection with an opener of the horizontal cylinder type as. part of a group of apparatus for open ng and conveying cotton and in this example, the high speed dust cage Z) is mounted on end structures 6 b. In

this case 5 is loose on the stationar shaft, r I 1 d While Z). combinesa long S16V6 6 upon which the driving pulley I) is fixed. Thus, the high speed dust cage 6 can be driven. On the stationary shaft (i are fixed the rings or pulley-like hoops d which support the damper D, which, in this case, is semi-circularin cross-section. There are circular end structures I), 6 bolted to the frame sides F, F, for the ends of the high speed cage Z) to rotate to, and thelower parts thereof have outlet apertures E, E which lead into two lateral exhaust ducts or conducting tubes E E which are coupled to a fan or fans and convey dust and dirt from the inside of he segmental damper D' shuts off the air suction from the interior of the cage 6 to the mouth piece G and to the trumpet mouth G and the tube G, and cotton on the lower area of the high speed dust cage is at once released. Ihis released cotton is collected into and conducted along the duct G which has a mouth sufliciently covering the release area or" the high speed dust cage, and a suction from the .1- .known fan or fans is exercisedonthe ductG which takes in clean air at the points G and G and so, clean air conveys the cotton along the duct G. The heater A projects the cotton, in a finely attenuated form, over the up- T .lper part of the highspeed dust cage b, and a closing roller it may be used driven by a crossed band from the pulley if. The upper part of the high speed cage is enclosed by a well fitting removable cover em re- J duce a suitable channel. for the passage of the cotton fibre.

In the example Fig. 6 we show a high speed dust-cage arranged between a heater of the horizontal duplex type and an opener of the vertical type such for instance as shown in the Creighton Patent No. 440,221, and between the latter opener and theD- shape pipes. The horizontal duplex opener is marked L, the vertical Opener C, and the D-shaped pipe Theihigh-speed dust cages are markedb,

and the dampers D, and the. dust and dirt passing into I) is taken right out as explained by the action of fans 70. Fresh air is admitted-at' the points is? and k and so the other. and known fan orfa-ns drawingthe cotton from the area of the cage covered by thedamper D is making use of clean airito convey the cotton.

In Fig. 7 a hopper feeder H is shown feedingtoaaD-shapedpipe marked j, and in'this case, a high speed dust cage 5 is interposed in' same at a relatively high speed and-this. we

do, the cages Z) being-run at say to 400 revolutionsjper minute, as against a speedof lO't o 20 revolutions per. minute which is about the normal speed of, ordinary. dust cages. i

a W e declare that what we claim is 1. Means "for the opening and cleaning treatment of cotton comprising a heater device, a dust cage capable of'being-driven at. a high speed, acasing between thebeater device and the high speed dust cage, .an ien closure for the said dust cage, a damper lo cated in saiddust cage, outlets for the dust and dirt in the dustcage enclosure to cause the dust andldirt'totravel laterally along the interior of the cage-,suction provisionforextract-ingthe dirty air which leaves the dust cage for good, a cotton receiving conduit out side the dust cage and below-thedampered section of the cage, clean air inlet provision to thecotton receiving conduit andmeansto" exert a suction 'on the cotton receiving conduit'so as-toeontinue-the carriage of the cotw ton in clean an, the dirty air beln'g conve yed out of the'dust cage and the cotton :liber ,ated to the clean air conduit.

2. Apparatus for opening and cleaning cotton comprising in combination an opening device, a-dust cage adjacent thereto, an interconnecting casing between the two, said dust cage adapted to be run'at a comparativelyg-high speed, an internal damper insaid;

dust cage, lateral outlet provision for dust and dirty air, suctionapparatus connectedto said outlet provision, a mouthed conduit in the rearoutside the dust cage and in the rear of the internal damper, clean air inlet tothe mouthedconduit and suction devicesconnected with said conduit to carry the opened and cleaned cottonalongthe conduit in clean air and whereby the suction air through-the dust cage carries a=thin film of opened cotton over the dust cage, passes out and removes the dirt, while clean air conveys the cotton liberated from the dust cage along the mouthed conduit.

3. Means for opening and cleaning cotton, comprising a revolvable opening device, a dust cage in close proximity thereto, a casing connecting thetwo, said dust cage adapted to be run at a comparatively high speed and having an adjustable partition located in its interior, side outlets communicating With the interior of the dustcage, suction means connected to said side outlets to draw the dust and dirt laterally of the cage interior, said adjustable partition ensuring liberation of the attenuated cotton disposed about the cage, a mouthed conduit below the partition and exterior to the dust cage, provision for admitting clean air to said conduit, and means for exercising a suction efiect upon the mouthed conduit to enable the cotton liberated from the cage by the action of the damper to be carried along the mouthed conduit in clean air, whereby the dust and dirt is withdrawn and permanently removed through a film of cotton disposed about a dust cage which runs at a high speed. 7

V 4. Means for opening and cleaning cotton, comprising an opening device, a dust cage working in close proximity thereto, said dust cage being adapted to be run at a relatively high speed, a connecting casing between the opening contrivance and the dust cage, a partition inside the dust cage, connections from the interior of the dust cage to outlets for dust and dirty air, suction provision from said outlets to draw the dust and dirty air laterally of the cage, a closing roller working to the dust cage, a mouthed conduit adj acent the dust cage and below the partition, provision for admitting clean air into said mouthed conduit, suction means in connection with said mouthed conduit and whereby thecotton leaving the dust cage is carried onwards in clean air all to enable the dust and dirty air to be definitely removed from the opened-up film of cotton lying about the dust cage and so that the function of dust removal is separated from the further conveyance of the cotton.

5. Means for opening and cleaning cotton, comprising an opening device, a dust cage adapted to Work closely to said opening device, said dust cage being adapted to be run at arelatively high speed, a connecting casing between the opening device and the dust cage, a partition inside the dust cage and dividing the dust cageinto compartments, connections from one compartment to outlet provision for dust and dirty air, suction provision connected. to said oulets to draw the dust and dirty air laterally oi the compartment-s, clean air inlets to the other compartment in the dust cage, a mouthed conduit below the compartment whereby clean airtit 

